Azerbaijan, Baku, Jul .3/ Trend, F. Karimov/
The value of one square meter of land for residential building increased by 157.1 percent in Tehran last winter compared to the year before, the Mehr News Agency reported.
Residential land and rundown buildings were sold at 56 million rial per square meter on average in Tehran.
Built-up land was also sold at 39 million rial per square meter, up 19 percent compared to the year before. Rentals increased by 28.4 percent on average.
Since autumn 2011, real estate prices in Iran's major cities, especially in Tehran, have skyrocketed, turning developers into overnight millionaires.
Part of the increase is due to a rise in the price of housing materials and land, which was triggered by the cut in fuel subsidies and the sharp drop in the exchange rate for the rial in relation to foreign currency.
Some economists say that the huge level of liquidity, which has reached 346 billion dollars during the two terms of the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is the main reason for the rise in housing prices. However, it seems that the psychological atmosphere created by developers and real estate agents is also at least partly to blame for the current state of affairs.
Tehran Renovation Organization Director Alireza Jafari has said that the price of housing in Tehran has increased more than 40 percent in comparison to the previous Iranian calendar year, which ran from March 2011 to March 2012.